The balloon continues to rise up in to the clouds with Derpy following close behind, shaking her head to clear it of the cloud puffs that would attach themselves on to her.
My Little Pony, My Little Pony~
'What was that?', the pegasus thought to herself in wonder of that curious sound.
Ahh, ahh, ahh, ahhh~
The wind suddenly picked up and began to carry her and Mr. Balloon away.
"WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" she yelled as the wind catapulted the two off towards the nearby forest. Reaching out for anything in her frenzied state, she manages to grab a hold on to the rope, causing it to slowly descend.
"Phew..." she relieves as she wipes the sweat off her forehead, only to then look down to where they were about to land. "Oh no... oh-no-oh-no-oh-no-oh-no-", she continued as she began to sink down through the foliage of the forest below.
After managing to land softly for once, she looked around for a place to tie up the rope to hold down Mr. Balloon to make sure he wouldn't get away. Finding a branch that she thought looked like a fine place to secure the rope around, she tied a knot around it. 'Mission: Success!', she thought, grinning at her accomplishment.
"That was a close one!"
Opening her eyes and focusing to see more clearly in the darkness, nervousness began to build up within her. "I-if I didn't know better, I would swear that I was in the middle of the dark and scary Everfree Forest! Heheheh!", she nervously spoke to herself. Suddenly, she heard a thudding sound coming from behind her! "Ah! W-W-What was th-that? C'mon Derpy! Just b-because this forest is probably filled w-with wild and d-dangerous animals, d-doesn't mean y-you'll see one!", she stuttered out.
A putrid smell from the bushes behind her invaded her nostrils as she backed up in to them, tripping over something that she quickly leaned forward to get a better view of. Forest green smoke puffed out at her as she covered her nose with a hoof before looking upwards to see...
"T-T-T-TIMBERWOOOOOLF!!!" she cried, before dashing away as fast as her hooves could carry. With several timberwolves in pursuit, she tried to fly away but found that one of her wings stuck straight to her side whilst the other just flapped around like mad, causing her to lose balance, trip, tuck up like a ball and roll downhill.
Her rolling came to a slowdown as the slope reached flat land and she bumped in to a rock wall. Uncurling herself and feeling dizzier than usual, she stood up on her two hind legs and leaned against the wall behind her, panting in exhaustion. Looking up, she froze at the sight of the timberwolves, slowly making their way towards their prey - her.
Frantically looking left and right, eyes nearly out of her sockets and chest heaving, she decided to use her last resort!
"Protect me, muffins!"
Derpy proceeded to pull out of nowhere the three muffins she had saved for this afternoon's picnic and one-by-one threw them at the timberwolves in hopes they had allergies against them. Unfortunately, each timberwolf gulped down the tasty treats and their wicked grins grew bigger as their approach continued. Derpy could only quiver in fear.
The putrid breath of the timberwolves sprayed out at her, nausiating the mare and bring her down on her rump as a timberwolf made a move to snap out at her. They drew slowly closer, her fate surely set in their sickly green, glowing eyes!
Suddenly, a rock flew wicked-fast out of nowhere, striking what seemed to be the alpha on what appeared to be it's left ear, snapping it clean off!
"Come 'n' get me, ya big goons!" a southern-accented voice spoke loudly from above.
Derpy slowly pried open her eyelids to look upon whomever her savior would be, to see the local farmhoof, Applejack, coming to her rescue. Derpy's face beamed up at her in joy before seeing Applejack's facial expression turn serious as she threw a rock high up in to the air before yelling at her to run. The farm pony turned around, raised her hind legs and bucked the falling rock right towards the timberwolves, hitting one right in the eye.
Angered, the timberwolves made chase for the farm pony as comprehension hit Derpy.
"I'm running! I'm running!"
Derpy quickly made her way through the clearing, hoping to find the nearest exit as Applejack led the timberwolves away from her, hoping to find a way to put a stop to them. Seeing a tree branch straight ahead, she grabs it by the teeth and continues on, letting it go to lash back at her pursuers, smashing one of them into pieces.
However, up ahead she spotted the mail mare prancing about frantically, trying to get herself up and flying in to the air.
She'd have to stop and defend her from the timberwolves' oncoming approach. Grinding to a halt, she picks up a few stones with her teeth, flings them in to the air, turns around and bucks them right back the timberwolves before she continues galloping onward, yelling for the mail mare to run the other way. The stones are flung towards one of the timberwolves, smashing it's front legs off, causing it to collapse on its front and burst in to sticks and twigs. Now there was only one left to deal with.
Looking ahead, Applejack spots a tree hollow she could dive through. Behind her, the last timberwolf is coming in close behind her, snapping at her tail. She manages to dive through the hole as her pursuer follows the same, only resulting in them smashing themselves to bits. Turning around, Applejack halts in fear of the two, detached front legs reaching out at her grind to a stop along the ground, promptly falling apart.
She takes a deep breath and relieves a sigh, wiping the sweat off her brow.
Derpy approaches the victorious Applejack with all the joy she could muster in to her voice. "Wow, Applejack! That was amaaazing! I-I mean, you rocketed those uh... rocks at them like they were... rockets! Pew! Pew! Pew-pew-pew!" Applejack giggles lightly at the precarious mare and her cute antics before looking back at her with a small smile. "You saved my life!", Derpy joyed.
The meaningfulness of the act then struck her as she took it to heart.
"You... saved... my life!" she said slowly, eyes welling up with tears. Blinking them away, she timidly approaches the farm pony and wrap hoof over her shoulder before being pushed gently back by a hoof on the chest.
"Aw, don't mention it Mrs. Hooves. C'mon, we should be headin' on back, now."
"Gee, I sure am lucky you were out here!", she remarked with a faint blush at the assumption that she was married. She then pondered on the matter at hoof. "Uh... why were you out here?"
"Saw the balloon floatin' by with nopony in it, came out here to investigate it." Applejack replies, then lowering her eyelids, continuing on saying "Guess you did too, huh?"
Nervously, kicking a hoof out at the remains of the timberwolf, Derpy replies "Uh... yeah! I-I was investigating the runaway hot air balloon too!", before approaching Applejack who was done tying the rope of the balloon around the tip of her tail. "So, uh, now that Mr. Balloon's been found, could we get out of here? This place is giving me the creeps..."
Applejack smiled back at the mare, replying "Hehe... okay, sugarcube."
As they continued to walk along the path the faint howling of timberwolves could be heard as the remains of the downed timberwolf began to reanimate themselves together again.
Inside Ponyville's Post Office, the elderly unicorn known as Bluecoat finishes filing through his papers, the sound of a ticking clock and the shuffling of bags can be heard. The local mail mare trots to his desk, carrying a bag of bits in her mouth before dropping them down on the surface.
"Anything else that needs to be done, sir?"
"Nope. Everything seems to covered for this morning, Derpy."
"A-Are you sure?"
The elderly pony proceeds to get up from his chair, reaching for his back and cracking it back in to place during the process.
"Ah! That's the spot!"
"C-Could I perhaps fetch you a glass of w-water or something?"
"No, no, I'm fine, thank you dear", he says with a slight nervousness to his tone. "I'm about to head out for some early lunch if you'd like to join me though?"
"Oh okay!", an excited grin on the mail mare's face as she flutters lightly in place. "Is there anywhere in particular you'd like to go?", she asks.
"There is that nice restaurant that opened up towards the edge of town not too long ago that I do enjoy going to." He points outside the window to the right side of the office, towards the restaurant in question as several ponies are seen dining outside in the sun.
"That'd be nice! Soooo~ Let's go!~", she says in a singsong voice, dragging Bluecoat by the hoof with the sudden motion towards the door. "Argh! Dang-nab it!", yelled the elderly unicorn.
After heading outside, the two ponies proceed to walk through the town towards their destination. As Bluecoat continued to count his bag of bits, Derpy spotted the foalsitter, Dinky and another foal, coming down from a hot air balloon ride and started to head towards them to say hello. Unfortunately, they hadn't noticed her and she ended up bumping in to the post where the hot air balloon had been tied to by it's owner, Cherry Berry, thus causing the knot to come undone and the balloon to float away!
"Oh no! Um... sorry! I'll go get Mr. Balloon for you!", Derpy replied, making chase for the runaway hot air balloon. Cherry Berry looked to the scene and could only put a hoof to her face in frustration. That was the third time this week.
